Knob
Narrative choice
You might say: player choice, branching choice
A narrative choice offers alternatives whose selection changes the story state, what the player learns, or what can happen next.
- What it does
- Turns agency into authored variation and gives players a reason to read, decide and replay.
- Ask
- What does each option reveal, change or commit the player to?
- Typical
- Reflective, tactical or strategic; local or downstream; direct branch, delayed branch or rejoin.
- Trouble
- Choices are cosmetic, all options converge without acknowledgement, or consequences arrive too late to understand.
What to look for
- Alternatives in dialogue or story
- Story state changing after selection
- New content or outcome after the choice
Sources
- The EGG, Interactive Stories, Interactive Stories, Overview
The choices made have a direct consequence on the course of the story and participants cannot usually reverse their decision.
Use it on your project
teardown-apply: hold "Narrative choice" (narrative-choice) from the teardown at https://teardownatlas.com/game-design/ against my project
Paste it into a coding agent that has the teardown skills.
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